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A core requirement of my Research Masters Programme here at Culture Lab is that I undertake and complete a ‘Final Project‘ which goes through Proposal, Development and Documentation/Presentation stages.

The Final Project Proposal will be due in January.

My attempts to put together this proposal have brought to light many apparent weaknesses, shortcomings and inefficiencies in my approach to STRATEGICALLY initiating this project, as an artist (as opposed to an academic, a biological scientist or an industrial designer.)

Pictured above are 9 Post-it notes with 9 headings: Digital; Law; Philosophy; Code; Democracy; Creativity; Art; Community & Ethics and beneath are corresponding points of reference: links, authors, artists, concepts etc.

This matrix was the result of an early attempt to try and list and categorise the priorities and points of reference in my mind, my practice and my sphere of research at that moment (some time in early September).

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Question: If I wrote down a list of my current thoughts, right now, would I arrive at the same reference points?

Answer: No.

Question: And, would I list the same categories?

Answer. No, they would be different.

Question: Why?

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‘references’ - the stuff that I am swimming in and breathing in – changing every day – I move through them – and they move through me

‘categories’ – imposed from outside – tags

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My experience of making art is analogous to EATING, DIGESTING and SHITTING rather than PLANNING, DESIGNING and BUILDING.  (‘DISTILLATION’ might be a more pleasant comparison.)  Both are organic ‘breaking down’ processes.

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All of this brings to mind Wim Delvoye’s remarkable Cloaca (shitting) machines:

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/09/yesterday-was-t-1.php

http://artfulgreendot.com/2009/04/10/manufactured-feces/

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Question: How can I isolate my IDEAS and INSPIRATIONS and describe them for others to follow?

Question: And, HOW can I SITUATE these ideas and processes within HISTORIC and STATE OF THE ART points of reference, in order to PLAN, DESIGN and BUILD?

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According to the brief this Research Project will be in response to: “…a specific problem chosen by the student”

Perhaps, I’d do best to approach this as a scientist: What do I want to know? …Or as a designer: What do I want to solve?

What is my problem?

(Maybe the artist is the best approach after all!)

Last week Ewelina sent an open invitation to our Digital Media mailing list:

Hey ***
I was wondering if any of you would like to go to Transmediale Festival(?)

Lot’s of people expressed an interest, so we held a meeting after class on the Wednesday and about 20 people came.  All of the people wanted to go to Transmediale 2010 and liked the idea of working together.  At the same time, a nagging question remained:

Q.  How do we co-ordinate loads of positive energy, valuable ideas and different approaches without wasting loads of valuable time and energy in the process?

Rather than begin planning for some kind of ’school-trip’ we set about establishing some guiding principles:

What do we agree on? AND What are the barriers?

We identified the following:
DATES: some people will want to flexible so, good idea to suggest dates and let people book
TRAVEL: best if people book flights, accom individually
ACCOMODATION: desirable to stay together – group hostel, student halls, apartments etc.
PARTICIPATION: Identify two-day activity period during Transmediale that CultureLabbers can plan the rest of their trip around.
MONEY: This was really the only barrier for people attending.

We’re now trying to co-ordinate our efforts through the Digital Media course wiki: http://dm.ncl.ac.uk/wiki/index.php/Transmediale_Festival_2010